World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) was an event held periodically from 1974 to 2024 wherecomputerchess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by theInternational Computer Games Association (ICGA, until 2002 ICCA^[1]). It was often held in conjunction with theWorld Computer Speed Chess Championship and theComputer Olympiad, a collection of computer tournaments for other board games. Instead of using engine protocols, the games are played on physical boards by human operators.

The WCCC was open to all types of computers including microprocessors,supercomputers,clusters, and dedicated chess hardware.

Due to the requirement to be present on-site, play on a physical board, and strict rules of originality, many strong programs refrain from participating in the ICGA events. As the conditions of the software championship can easily be emulated by anyone with a high-end PC, there are now privately conducted tournaments, such asTop Chess Engine Championship, that have much broader attendance, as well as a larger number of games to reduce the influence of chance.

In 2007, the reigning championJunior declined to defend its title.

For the 2009 edition, the rules were changed to limit platforms to commodity hardware supporting at most eightcores,^[2] thereby excluding supercomputers and large clusters. However, this was reversed in the following year and a parallelSoftware Championship was held instead; unlimited hardware is once again allowed in the championship proper.

From 2010 a new tournament was introduced and held at the same location and during the same period as the World Computer Chess Championship. The rules for theWorld Chess Software Championship (WCSC) state that competing programs must run on machines with identical hardware specifications. Time control is game in 45 minutes with 15 second increment.^[6][7]

From 1980 to 2001, the ICCA/ICGA organized a separate cycle of championships limited to programs running onmicroprocessors.^[13] In the first three championships, the winners were dedicated chess computers, and then in 1984, Richard Lang's Psion program shared first place, running on anIBM PC underMS-DOS.

At the 14th WMCCC in Jakarta, theIsraeli teamJunior was denied entry toIndonesia and some other teams dropped out in protest.

The 16th WMCCC was the same as the 9th WCCC above.

• ICGA Journal - Academic journal published by the ICGA
• Chess engine
• Computer chess
• Computer Olympiad
• World Computer Speed Chess Championship
• North American Computer Chess Championship
• Chess.com Computer Chess Championship
• Top Chess Engine Championship

• Official website of the International Computer Games Association (ICGA)
• ICGA - Kanazawa - 18th WCCC 2010
• ICGA - Pamplona - 17th WCCC 2009
• ICGA - Beijing - 16th WCCC 2008
• ICGA - Amsterdam - 15th WCCC 2007
• ICGA - Turin - 14th WCCC 2006
• ICGA - Reykjavík - 13th WCCC 2005
• Austrian Chess Federation - WCCC 2003 at Graz at theWayback Machine (archived April 6, 2004)

• World championships in chess
• Computer chess competitions
• Recurring events established in 1974

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata